Indicted CEO Shkreli rolls eyes and takes the Fifth in front of Congress

Ex-pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli has been called the most hated man in America.

Ex- pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli rolled his eyes and declined to answer questions in front of Congress on Thursday. Lawmakers asked how he raised the price of a life-saving drug to $750 a pill after buying its patent.

On Thursday, in front of Congress, he did nothing to dissuade that notion as he rolled his eyes and invoked his Fifth Amendment rights as lawmakers questioned him about why he raised a life-saving saving pill to $750.

Shkreli took to Twitter later to call lawmakers “imbeciles,” according to this Fox News story.

After he rolled his eyes, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., to demand, “Are you even paying attention?”

“It’s not funny, Mr. Shkreli,” Cummings said. “People are dying.”

“I have never seen the committee treated with so much contempt,” Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., said.

The hearing focused on price increases, lack of transparency and regulatory run-arounds of the prescription drug market in the U.S.

Shkreli first came to public attention last year when he raised the drug Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 pill after his then company Turing Pharamceuticals, bought the patent. The pill is used to treat HIV/AIDS and is the only drug on the market to treat a rare parasitic infection.

Shkreli resigned from Turing after he was charged with criminal charges of securities fraud in connection with another drug company he owned. He is out on $5 million bail.

The lawmakers summoned him to answer for the decision that made him infamous: raising the price for Daraprim, the only approved drug for a rare and sometimes deadly parasitic infection.